At least 26 people were killed and 57 injured in a suicide bomb explosion near the Arfa Karim IT Tower in Lahore on Ferozepur Road on Monday. An hour after the incident the banned TTP claimed responsibility for the attack. The group claimed that the attack was carried out by its member Fida Hussain Sawati and released his photograph on social media.
According to initial reports, the explosion was heard at least 2km away and formed a small crater at the site. An eyewitness told reporter, “I saw the motorcyclist approaching policemen and moments later there was a powerful blast followed by a plume of dust and flames. As soon as the blast occurred, I saw over a dozen policemen in uniform lying in a pool of blood beside many women and children”.
Unfortunately, when city of flowers Lahore taking shower of blood, another suicide blast was reported from Kabul. In that attack,26 people were killed and 41 injured. Taliban claimed responsibility of car bomb attack. With this, Kabul attacked raising fears of sectarian violence in Afghan capital.
We think that this is the time for political government to sit with military leadership and to make sure implementation of announced National Action Plan. Its correct that Armed Forces and public are sacrificing a lot on daily bases but its high time for political leadership to take the responsibility and own operations either they will be irrelevant.
Earlier we also mentioned that this is the time of collaboration of Pakistan government and Armed Forces with Afghan government to formulate combined strategy to fight terror. Its need of time for both countries to join hands and come to same page against terrorism, militancy and extremism. Both of the governments should understand that enemies of peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan are on the same page, hence both countries also need to must fight war against terror with collaboration.
We think, for achievement of this goal US commander in Afghanistan Gen John Nicholson can play a positive role. Luckily, on Monday, he was in Pakistan and met with Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa and discussed issues related to coordination, especially those, related to border management. It is also necessary that US for Gen John Nicholson to convey to US administration and Afghanistan to avoid unnecessary allegations on Pakistan, because after rendering huge sacrifices in war against terror Pakistan deserves appreciations and not character assassination.
Pakistan and Afghanistan should join hands to root out menace of terrorism from the region.